Topic: Bill Gates Interview, Details about the next Xbox.

[- NintendoFan -]

"Thanks for taking the time to meet with me today. First off I wanted to ask you about the next Xbox console, which is arguably going to be the biggest Microsoft launch of the year. Why launch the console on MTV as opposed to E3? Do you risk alienating the original Xbox’s audience of hardcore gamers by going mass market from day one?

I’m going to call it Xenon, that’s the codename for the thing; Xenon is good enough that we’ll have no problem. Hardcore gamers are going to love Xenon because of the applications that are on Xenon. And it’s not just the technical specs. It’s the partnership we have with the game creators and we’re going to have this next generation machine out so that it’s going to be timed with high definition becoming very mainstream.


We’ve learned a lot from Xbox 1. In Xbox 1 we let ourselves sort of be second in and to not have the momentum. We had to learn a lot about building the partnerships. We’re new to the industry so people naturally didn’t know if we were hardcore committed to the thing. We’ve really gotten over that now and so it’s been a lot easier this time around, but we want to broaden video gaming, and without giving up any of the hardcore players we want more women, older people [to be playing games]. We’re going to have games that are more sociable, more approachable, particularly by taking this idea of Xbox Live and bringing in contests and spectators and ratings and talking to your friends and various new things there we think we can make it much bigger category than it’s ever been to date. That is important for us."

Alittle bit more at this link:

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000440041962/

EDIT: Fixed Link

[vudu]

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I’m going to call it Xenon, that’s the codename for the thing

That's really funny.  Not exactly sure why.  You'd think the president of a multi-billion dollar company would speak a little more formal.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Does that mean that Xenon is now, not only the codename, but the official name for 'the thing'?

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: BlackNMild2k1
Does that mean that Xenon is now, not only the codename, but the official name for 'the thing'?

Or maybe Bill Gates just hates the name Xbox 360 as much as the rest of us...

[PaLaDiN]

Or maybe he's just as clueless about videogames as he ever was.

Heh... remember when he praised the GBA in that one article?

[KDR_11k]

Bill Gates is the majority shareholder of Microsoft, not the president/CEO/whatever. The CEO is a guy called Steve Balmer, known for his "Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!" talk.

Also, Bill probably thinks the same as everybody else: Xenon is the best name out of the ones proposed. Or perhaps he didn't know whether Marketing would let him use the final name.

The rest of it is pretty much the same Iwata was saying about the Revolution minus the "innovation over graphics" talk. We're forging relationships with third parties. We're trying to appeal to non-gamers as well as gamers.